Sun for our last day :-)

Not warm but very sunny for our last day of our US adventure.

After breakfast in (another) place in our street we took the hop on-hop off bus again to get a sunny picture of the '6 sisters' on Alamo square. These 6 houses are also famous from a couple of tv series/movies.

We leave the bus at Haight street, which is one of the 'hippie streets' of San Francisco. Tattoo shops, a lot of vintage shops (which of course we entered) and some nice wall paintings.
Early afternoon we took the bus till the next stop, the center of the Golden Gate Park. Students from a highschool were busy giving some music demonstrations. The little ones did some dancing, the older ones some classical music concert and the last ones some Japanese drums demo. A 1,5h break in the park a sunny afternoon ... very relaxing.



We visited the Japanese garden in the park and took the bus to the Golden Gate Bridge again, for a sunny picture this time ;-) We left the bus on the other side for a little walk and another view on the bridge and San Francisco.
To end the day, some shopping at Macy's (stores are open till 21h during the week) and putting all weight on our suitcases to get them closed ;-)

This 3-weeks trip has been an amazing chain of relaxing moments, funny moments, big impressions and surprises. The monumental nature will leave the biggest mark and made this trip unforgettable.
Although we certainly could continue this trip we are getting tired since a couple of days, so will (somehow) be happy to return home tomorrow to rest a bit before going back to work and earn money for a next trip ;-)

Wake up at 5h50 to take the plane at 8h30 (Wednesday morning) and arrive at 8h (Thursday morning) in Brussels.

If you're going to San Francisco ...

... make sure to take an umbrella with you ;-)

Today was probably the worst day of our holidays, since not that funny to visit and walk in the city on a cold, grey and rainy day. Must be to prepare us for the return to Belgium ;-)

We did the 'hop on - hop off' bus tour before noon, after breakfast in a little café in our street. Seen the weather conditions no seat on the upper deck of the bus, but inside (we tried the upper deck when driving over the Golden Gate bridge,but it was not a big success ;-)). Such bus is always a good way to have a quick view of the city and it will allow us to better define where to go tomorrow.

I bought some umbrella and we had lunch at Fisherman's Wharf before boarding the boat to Alcatraz. Although most of the time we have been rather positively surprised by the food (although we probably ate too much burgers ;-) the lunch today was not that good as what we had till now. Furthermore, after 3 weeks the choice in meals gets very limited.

Alcatraz is certainly worth the visit and the guide that made the 15 min introduction before we start the audio tour was excellent in telling some famous 'escape trial facts' from the past. And we even had 10 min sun while on Alcatraz ;-)




At 17h last boat back from Alcatraz and we took the tram to Castro, the gay area of San Francisco. We didn't make a very big walk around seen the rain, but it is also a nice area with houses in Victorian style. We had a glas of wine in a wine bar and dinner in a Moroccan restaurant.

After 4960 km we arrive at San Francisco

After a trip of 4960 km we reached the last stop of our USA holidays : Frisco.

We parked our car in the center, next to Market place and took the old typical cable car to Fisherman's Wharf for our first view on the Golden Gate bridge and to buy our tickets for visiting Alcatraz.

Kris couldn't wait, but we booked tickets for tomorrow afternoon (all trips today already fully booked).
After a little walk there we had a good walk back to our car (everybody certainly saw the 'up and down' streets of San Francisco in different movies ;-) while crossing Chinatown.

Check-in in our hotel 'Vertigo', having a very good location near Union Square and a Thai dinner with very good sticky rice to end the day.

Tomorrow we'll make the city tour with the 'hop on - hop off' bus.

Yosemite - home of giant sequoia and waterfalls

Enormous big forest/National park today.
Again with some bus shuttle service in Yosemite Valley. Our hotel is at 5min drive from the entrance of the national park and then it is about 45min drive to reach the visitor center and have access to the shuttle and hiking trails.

Althoug it is not yet the real start of the season almost all parking spots are occupied and a lot of cars parked on 'non-parking' spots. I can't imagine how hectic it must be in the season. Maybe the fact that we are Saturday and have a sunny day has something to do with it ?




Mariposa Grove with the giant sequoia starts at the entrance of the park, so we did that at the end of the day.
The access road (3,5 km) is still closed (although we didn't see any snow), so we had to walk that way to the start of the trail to see Grizzly Giant, an 1500 years old, as tall as a Boeing 747 and a diameter of 8m. You cannot touch it, so here is a picture of me with a 'smaller' one :

We drove all day ...

... and finally arrived at our hotel Tenaya Lodge at Yosemite National Park when it got dark.

They have wifi acces, so after a swim in the indoor pool 2 blog messages ;-).

On the map Death Valley is not that far from Fish Camp, at the entrance of Yosemite Valley.
However, since it's all nature and mountains it is not that easy.
The GPS directed us around the Southern part of the park, estimating the ride to last +/- 5h. Kris proposed to go North and enter via the East entrances, which seemed a bit quicker on the map.

So, after about 3h we arrived at the Tioga Pass but it was closed since too much snow (weather is colder than foreseen for this period of the year). Also the next 2 entrances are still closed, so we had to take the 4th one, which means we made 3/4 of a circle around the National parks -> 11h drive.

Luckily we had some nice scenery (rocks, salt and sand changed to water, snow and green) :

Death Valley - No water but salt

Bye bye Vegas, we keep the same hot temperature but from extremely crowdy and 'artificial' to silence and wide nature. Death Valley looks indeed very dead.
We are lucky to have a temperature around 30 °C; during summer temperatures are well above 40°C.
The park is almost the same size as Belgium; Almost no water but a lot of salt. From distance you would think you see a lake, but it is all salt at about 86 meter under sea level.

Best place to have a good view over this 'salt lake' is at Dante's view. You need to go in the morning to have a clear view, but since we had to drive about 3h the view was not that clear anymore.

A close up of the salt pan
At Badwater basin you can walk a long way into this salt field. Badwater was given as name since a long time ago when a traveller wanted to give water to his donkey but the animal didn't want to drink so the water was considered as 'bad water'. It kept its name, although the water is not bad but 3x as salty as regular sea water.

View at the start of our hike to 'Natural Bridge'

Passing by 'Golden rocks (= bright colors)', 'Funeral rocks (= black)' to Sand Dunes, just in front of our hotel room. Back to the past (at least 60 years ago) in a basic cowboy motel, the Stovepipe Wells. Of course some improvements have been done over the years, but rather limited and no internet yet ;-)

But we should not complain, it is a nice 'back in time' experience and we have a room with view on the Sand Dunes

*$*$* Viva Las Vegas *$*$*

No update of the blog yesterday, since at 1h30 in the morning I wanted to take a bath before going to sleep & early wake-ups do not allow extra time for the pc then ;-) + it's 15 $ to use internet here (in Vegas you can get everything you want as long as you pay good money for it). We lost our money with the slot machines, so not much left for the internet cost :-)

Since we'll be in a very basic hotel in Death Valley tomorrow (one of the only ones in the middle of the park), I expect we'll also have no internet so finally pay the 15 $ ;-).

Las Vegas is - as expected - again something really different. Not about nature this time (although, how comes such a city in the middle of the desert ?). No big/huge mountains/canyons but huge hotels.

On our way to Las Vegas we visited the Valley of Fire Park. Not as massive as what we saw the previous days but interesting to see. Very rough and nice colors. We only did 2 trails since more than 30 °C and full sun.

Afterwards we visited the Stratosphere -> High tower with great view on the strip. On top of this tower you have 3 attractions of which only Phil did 1 -> X-scream :



Vegas really is a special experience. To have the live experience as it should we took a suite in The Mirage hotel.




View from our room (26th floor) :

We are happy with our choice, since just at the right spot on the strip (in the middle) an we visited all big hotels and think The Mirage is amongst the top 5 and best price-quality (for the price we pay for the suite we would only have a standard room in the Wynn, Belagio or Venetian Hotel). The size of the hotel properties is immense, and some have outdoor attractions. Besides the Casino, the swimming pool and multiple restaurants and shops in each hotel, our hotel also has an own zoo and in the evening the waterfall and pond in front of the hotel becomes an active volcano in action with sound and fire.
The Venetian has some gondola as will in front as inside the hotel, and the Belagio has an enormous water play show every 15 min in the evening.
New-York hotel has a real roller-coaster on top of the hotel.
etc...



This evening we saw the opera/musical 'Phantom of the Opera' in The Venetian, just across the street. Great singers/actors, theater and special effects. There are so many different (great) shows here in Vegas that you have to see one. Different shows of Cirque du Soleil in different hotels and Cher in Cesar's Palace.

All kind of people in the streets (and a lot) and many 'fashion ladies'. Of course, since also so many fashion couture in the different hotels/fashion stores.

Tomorrow back to nature again ...